Yahoo to end its music service in China

Yahoo China has announced that its Yahoo Music service will be permanently shutdown on January 20, 2013. This announcement follows a similar one from Google that took place in September in which Google stated that its Chinese music service would be taken offline. The closure comes after Yahoo's sale of its share of Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce website, for $7.6 billion.

The announcement from Yahoo is exceptionally brief - a single sentence, in fact - but alludes to the company's reason for shutting down the service. "Dear Yahoo Users: Thank you for your continued support. Due to a shift in product strategy, Yahoo China has decided to discontinue its Yahoo Music service. The change will take effect on January 20, 2013."

Yahoo has made many changes throughout 2012 as it aims to restructure itself and regain the foothold that has lost over time. Marissa Mayer, the company's relatively new CEO, arrived after the Alibaba sale; she proposed that the company use the money to target various acquisitions. Back in October, Yahoo hired former Google executive Henrique de Castro.

Thus far, the changes seem to have served the company well, with Yahoo's third quarter financial report exceeding the expectations of many. The company brought in $1.2 billion in GAAP revenue, a nice figure to close Mayer's first full quarter with Yahoo. Thus far, Yahoo has not offered a statement about its music service closure in China.